An Upstate man is behind bars after threatening the lives of two Laurens police officers earlier this year.

The Laurens Police Department responded to a trespassing report in June 2017 when 42-year-old Henry Kevin Grant, a bystander at the scene, began shouting obscenities at them.

Grant was placed under arrest after ignoring several commands to calm down. Officials said while Grant was being transported to jail, he threatened to rape the infant daughter of one of the officers.

The officer said he had seen Grant near his home on multiple occasions in the past and took the threat seriously.

Grant also threatened to kill the other officer who responded to the scene.

He was convicted on Tuesday of two counts of threatening the life of a public official and sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum allowed sentenced. He also has pending warrants for domestic violence and threatening the life of a public official after a separate incident while he was on bond in July 2017.

“The threats made by this man were absolutely reprehensible,” Solicitor David Stumbo said . “We send our officers out every day into harm’s way, and I will not tolerate the safety of their own families being threatened while they keep the rest of our community safe. We will always have the backs of our law enforcement community, and hopefully this conviction and prison sentence will re-enforce that fact.”